The advances of conventional digital camera technology have made the process of capturing images easier. However, capturing a good quality image is difficult and problematic using conventional techniques. To work around this problem, many users capture the same image multiple times with the expectation that one of the images may be useable for printing or assembly in a slide show. For example, a feature referred to as “burst mode” or “continuous shooting mode,” may allow a digital camera to take a sequence of images in rapid succession. Some digital camera models allow for an unlimited number of image captures, while other models limit the number of successive images to a single burst.
Capturing multiple images may contribute to image window clutter and unmanageability. In some conventional applications, users can group images in folders or files, such as the filing system in an operating system of a computer. Users may be required to manually select the images, drag them to a folder, and drop them in. This may be very tedious for an avid photographer. Even after the tedious organizational effort, the generic filing systems of operating systems may require the user to locate and select one particular image for printing, viewing, or copying functions.
Image-based applications may provide the concept of a “stack” which may provide a way to group images with some added benefits. The “stack” of images may be treated as if it were one image. That is, one thumbnail image is shown in a display window as a representation of the stack. The other images in the stack are stored and available, but may not have a visible thumbnail. Further, the image selected as the thumbnail may be automatically pre-selected for printing, or viewing. However, similarly to files or folders, users may be required to manually select the images in the stack, which may be tedious and time consuming.
Some applications provide for the grouping of images based on time proximity. That is, the images captured during a selected time interval may be grouped together. However, this method may group images together that have no subject matter commonality. In other words, images taken during a selected time interval may be visually different or disparate. For example, a user may be on a whale watching trip and capture images of a whale breaching when a sea bird passes between the lens and the whale. These images may be grouped by time proximity analysis simply because they were captured during the same time range. Other applications provide for the grouping of images based on visual similarity. That is, the images that share common scenery or common images are grouped together. However, this method may group differing views of the same subject captured years apart that a user may want to keep separate.
Thus, what is needed is a method and system for stacking images without the limitations of conventional techniques.